(Ir)religiosity

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I’ve been thinking about what we call the “Kingdom of God” quite a bit recently. Well, for the past several months actually. This is what I’ve noticed. We do a great job of describing what the kingdom is, what it should be, and how it might look when actualized or realized within a given local context. We do a wonderful job talking about a type of alternative, subversive, counter-cultural reality and how it can function if we commit ourselves wholly to its cause. We’ve written books, given sermons, conducted interviews, and yes we’ve even blogged about it. And that is great. That is good. We need to be doing that. I hope we never quit.

But here’s the thing. We still use the old language. We still describe this alternative reality as a “kingdom.” And though some of us very effectively contextualize what “the kingdom” might look like in our locality, we still use the archaic term conjuring up ancient images of feudalism and chivalry whether we realize it or not. We need different language.

The bottom line is virtually no one can relate to a phrase like “the kingdom of God” anymore. It means nothing to us. It’s not as visceral and indigenous to us as it was to a peasant in 1st century Palestine. It just doesn’t resonate anymore. Most importantly, it doesn’t overtly challenge the status quo as it did when Jesus first spoke of it. At that time, simply uttering the phrase “the kingdom of God” was jarring in itself. Today we utter the phrase but feel the need to qualify it because it doesn’t seem to have the same veracity as it once did.

True we need to change our thinking and realign our interests with the interesting of this “kingdom,” but I think we need a different language in addition to a different framing story. So, over the course of several posts I’d like to suggest a few alternative descriptions that we might use to replace “the kingdom of God” in the here and now. I’m not convinced that there is only once such description, perhaps we need more than one. But we need something. Something that reclaims the original opposition and subversion Jesus intended. Something that will really catch the eye of the Empire. Something that will immediately and directly challenge the legitimacy of the Empire. We need something that is truly counter-cultural. We need something revolutionary.

~bh ><>